Blood of Gold by Duncan McGeary

was the eyewitness testimony, some of which was actually credible. The amount of evidence seemed too overwhelming for all of it to have been manufactured.
    Someone had found a cellphone on the street. The video footage on it showed a man running toward the camera faster than seemed humanly possible. As his face became clearer, you could see the fangs already covered in blood, the look of hunger in the creature’s eyes. There was something so believable about it that a screen grab from the footage––the last frame before it went dark––had become the signature image of the event. Sure, it could’ve been faked, but most people instinctively understood that this was what some poor soul had seen in his or her last moments.
    It was so evident that something unusual had happened that conspiracy theorists were taking the opposite tack than usual: that is, that so much evidence of vampires existing meant it must be fake, which, ironically, gave the stories more credibility than ever. Surveys showed that in addition to the usual twenty percent of the populace who will believe anything, another twenty percent thought vampires “likely,” and more than half thought them “possible.”
    Books about vampires shot to the top of the best-seller lists, and shows about vampires filled movie theaters and started a heavier-than-usual rotation on TV. Old movies and TV shows were resurrected and given new life, much like the vampires themselves.
    Coming on the heels of the news stories out of Crescent City, The Testament of Michael arrived as a validation of the reality of vampires.
     
    #
     
    “Listen to this.” Sylvie was reading aloud from her laptop. They were back home in Bend. Jamie, Sylvie and Terrill were sitting at the kitchen table, and early-morning sunlight was streaming through the windows. Terrill had almost winced when Sylvie had pulled back the curtains to flood the room with light. It was hard to get used to the fact that he and the other vampires with blood of gold could survive in the full light of day. Old habits died hard.
    “‘From Michael came Terrill, who defied Satan and refused to feed on the souls of the innocent. Terrill, who went to his doom without complaint, who became Human because of his love of Mankind. Terrill, who sacrificed himself yet again that he might fight the new threat of the Wilderings.
    “‘He was the first of the Blood of Gold. From him came a new race of beings, neither human nor vampire, but the best of both… ’”
    “Jesus,” Terrill breathed.
    “No, not Jesus. I think he’s calling you Terrill,” Jamie said, laughing. There was something in her eyes as she looked at him, though, that made it seem as if she was half serious.
    “And you’re telling me the author, this Marc , is someone you know?” Terrill asked.
    “If it is who I think it is, he’s a young man who helped me. He was a nice guy. I called him ‘Marc-with-a-c.’”
    “But how does Marc know all this stuff?” Terrill exclaimed. “Where’s he getting it from?”
    “God told him, obviously,” Jamie snorted.
    “Who’s next? Matthew, Luke and John?”
    “Hell if I know,” Jamie admitted. “To tell you the truth, he’s pretty convincing. I feel like I should fall to my knees before you, Master.”
    “Oh, shut up,” Terrill muttered.
    In all his long existence, he had never been as happy and content as he’d been since he and Sylvie had returned home from the disaster in Crescent City.
    Humans seemed to believe that everyone had a soul mate in life, if they could but find them, but Terrill had lived many lifetimes, and he had never felt like this.
    Sylvie was young, incredibly young compared to him, but she was wiser than he was. Her emotional response to the events and people around her was always kind and thoughtful and seemingly right. It was a knack he’d never learned.
    Now, as he watched her read the newspaper aloud, she seemed so alive, but so vulnerable. Several times during the Battle